A Lot Happens When You're on Vacation - Week 93 - Feb 4-12

Go away for a few days and the world goes crazy.  The pope quits?  Brazeau is facing charges?  Stephen Harper's stupid hockey book is coming out?  Okay.  I guess those are the only major things, but still, it seems a bit shocking.  Incidentally, where does the Prime Minister of the country find time to write a book?  Imagine if Obama released a book on basketball in the next few months?

It's interesting about Brazeau.  The Conservatives seem to have no problem when he is accused of fraud (ya, I'm calling cheating on your Senate housing expenses fraud) or does a major sexist freak-out on a journalist.  But they're tripping all over themselves to kick him out of their party when he is accused of assault?  This Tyee article nicely puts what I've been thinking in to words:  Harper really knows how to cut and run.

There are some interesting nuggets contained in this story about Brazeau getting suspended from the Senate.  The other Senators seem pretty pissed that they have to deal with him.

The Conservatives have edited out criticism by the Parliamentary Budget Officer and the Auditor General in a report on the F-35 fiasco.


Remember the Saskatchewan Robo-Calls thing last week.  Turns out it is in no way the fault of the Conservatives.  It was done by their employee.  Who they hired.  And who reports to them.  But it's her fault.  Not theirs.

I tried to post a link about how the Conservatives are funneling funding to aid organizations with religious ties, but I couldn't find a link.  Well, they finally got caught funding a really terrible one with horrendous anti-gay beliefs.  And somehow claim that it doesn't matter.

Amazing how opinion polls are a Conservatives best friend when they align with their specific plans.  But is Mali really "another Afghanistan"?  I guess it could be, in the sense that it could drag on for years and people could get killed.  But the reasons for going into Afghanistan vs. the reasons for going in to Mali seem worlds apart.

The Federal Government claims that they have killed their internet snooping bill and promise that they won't bring it back.  Didn't they already kill this thing once?  Why should we now believe their promises?

What bothers me about the Conservative "tough-on-crime" agenda is that it's just tremendously easy politics with no real benefit.  It is tough to argue against the stance that criminally insane killers spend more time in custody.  But there are two things wrong with this.  Number one, we're talking about an incredibly small handful of cases here.  Why do we spend so much time worrying about this shit?  (answer - easy politics)  Number two, if we would perhaps spend some time worrying about support systems for the mentally ill, perhaps we wouldn't have to worry so much about this stuff as the crimes wouldn't happen in the first place.

Rona Ambrose suggests that Canadian Companies should get more involved with defense procurement/manufacturing.  Okay.  After witnessing British Columbia attempt to create a fast ferry manufacturing industry I'm going to suggest that this is perhaps a bad idea.

HD Mining reached out to the Union to end the foreign workers dispute.  To me, it reads like "give us everything that we want and then we can start negotiating".  I just can't agree more with the union.  Canadian Resources should be used (well, they say to create Canadian Jobs) for the good of the country.  If the country isn't benefiting to the maximum possible extent, then what the fuck are we digging this stuff up for in the first place?  Why is it a race to dig shit out of the ground?  It's not going anywhere.

Did you know that there is a native polar bear hunt and that they're allowed to sell the hides on the international market?  Man.  That seems a bit fucked up.  We're also apparently responsible for dwindling wolverine numbers in the USA.

So not just the Conservatives are making questionable decisions on Queen's Jubilee medals.  The NDP awarded one to a guy facing firearms charges.  And they're standing by it.

(Since I wrote this, the Cons clarified that they only want to banish people with multiple citizenships.  But I think this still stands.  It's still war on brown people.) So, we're going to strip the citizenship of Canadians who commit "acts of war against Canadians" or "terrorism".  On the surface, I guess this sounds fine.  This would justify the Canadian government doing nothing in cases like Omar Khadr.  But here's my thought.  Once you're a Canadian, you're a Canadian.  Good or bad, you're a Canadian.  There's lots of Canadians that do really stupid shit.  They remain Canadian.  So, we're going to strip the citizenship of somebody who, what?  Donates money to the wrong people?  Does something that the US doesn't agree with?  What about somebody who blows up a Canadian pipeline?  Are they a "terrorist"?  Are they no longer Canadian?  Oh.  Wait.  They're probably white so no problem.

And now CSIS is talking about "domestic terrorism".  Is it just a coincidence that the Cons are talking about revoking the citizenship of "terrorists"?

Certain Copyright focussed Organizations are lobbying for the ability to install monitoring software on your computer to track their interests.  That's right.  Not only do you not really want you to own the stuff that they sell you (by holding on to a piece of it with their crazy, crazy requirements), they want to be able to tap in to the computer that you (thought you) own(ed) to make sure you aren't doing anything that upsets them.  Fuck these guys.  Honestly.  The companies associated with these associations need to be punished.  I'm sick and tired of companies making obscene demands that will impact my life.

This doesn't really compute with me.  We're drastically cutting our military budget.  We're forcing senior officers out (that can't be cheap).  And we're spending tonnes and tonnes of money purchasing new equipment.  This doesn't add up.

So apparently the LAPD is just shooting random people on their manhunt for a cop killer.  You don't hear about that much in the news.

Flying First Class - Week 91.5 - Jan 28-30

Oh boy.  Look at how folksy and amazing Stephen Harper is!  Twitter!  High Fives!

Holy shit!  It cost a million bucks to fly Harpo's limos to India?  That's crazy.  Couldn't they have bought armoured transport for less?

Oh.  Wait.  We sent Special Forces to Mali as well as an airplane.  Oops.  Steve forgot to mention that.

Stats Can released some data on income equality/inequality in Canada.  The poor 1% only earns 10.6% of the Nations total income (2010) vs. the 12.1% they earned in 2006.  This is interesting, but largely academic.  However, what I do find interesting is the earnings that would put you in the 1%.  Where an American 1 Percenter is probably making at least a few million a year (I can't back this up right now, but when you look at their numbers, their income inequality is staggering), $201,400 per year ($16,783 per month) in Canada puts you in the 1 Percent.  Now, don't get me wrong, 200 grand a year is a healthy chunk of cash, but I figured it would require far more than that to beat out 99% of the country.  The National Post of course has an interesting take on this.  Surprisingly, they take it as an opportunity to poke fun at the Occupy movement.  Is this news?  Infotainment?  Anyhow.  I digress.  What is interesting is that they manage to point out the median income of the 98%.  $28,400 per year.  Ouch.  Anyhow.  Scroll down to the bottom of this post for my take on how this proves we have a ridiculous Real Estate bubble.

Canada!  Pillars of the World Economy!  Banks made of granite!  Oh.  Wait.  All downgraded due to our ridiculous housing/debt bubble.  Just wait.  Years of post recession praise of our banking?  Yes.  All thanks to the Conservatives.  Followed by a precipitous decline thanks to the above mentioned issues?  Whose fault is that going to be?

So, I heard on the news that the Conservatives are going to "open up a dialogue" with First Nations.  But apparently "opening up a dialogue" means "we'll talk, but don't expect anything to change."  Peter Van Loan even suggests that the bills that they have the biggest problem with (the two Omnibus Budgets) will actually make them some of the "greatest beneficiaries".  This just seems like an amazing strategy.  Somebody tells you that they have a real problem with something and you come back and tell them that they are mistaken and this will actually be really good for them.

Hey.  You didn't think the Ashley Smith thing could get worse?  Well, turns out they tried to buy the guards silence.  After more-or-less firing them.

Which leads to...  A 12-year-old girl gets thrown in adult jail for 11 days.  No word in the article as to whether or not she is large for her age.

Two things from this story about Corporate Income Tax:
1 - Corporations pay lower tax rates than humans.
2 - Corporate tax cuts are not creating jobs.

Did you hear about Israel coercing Ethiopian Jews into accepting birth control?  I think Stephen Harper is still drafting the memo that Canada is 100% in support of Israel's right to do this.

So, as I mentioned above, let's talk about Real Estate.  This gets a bit number crazy.  Let's look at what $201,400 yearly income means.
Yearly Salary - $201,400
After tax take home - $153,580 (plug it in here if you don't believe me)
Monthly take home pay - $12,798 per month

So, you're a fancy 1 percenter.  You live in Vancouver.  You deserve a big house, right?  Chances are, your bank is going to give you a fat mortgage, but you're not greedy.  You're going to buy the average Greater Vancouver house at the benchmark price.  You get a lovely teardown for $904,000.  Here's where it gets tricky as no two mortgages are the same.  Let's assume a 15% down payment and let's assume a 5 Year, 3.5% fixed rate.  Not too shabby.  What does your mortgage look like?
Down payment - $135,600
Monthly payment - $3,900

So, you're paying $3,900 to live in the Greater Vancouver average detached house (trust me, this won't be a fancy place).  That is over 30% of your income.  According to some, anything over 36% is an unhealthy income/debt ratio.  So.  If you live in Vancouver.  And you're in the top 1 percent of all income earners in the entire country.  You can just afford to buy the average detached house.  Which leads me to wonder about how all of these properties are paid for.  Is Vancouver composed entirely of 1 percenters?

Kicking it up a notch - Week 89.5 - Jan 14-16

Okay.  I've been told that I'm too slow and nobody will pay attention to my long posts.  So, we'll try to ratchet things up a bit with a mid-week post.

I'm not going to pretend to know anything about Mali.  The summary of the situation seems to be "We gonna go get us some Muslim terrorists!"  Only with a French accent.  Is this good or bad?  I don't really know.  However.  It seems to me that if you're going to get involved, you should get involved.  Sending one airplane for a week seems a bit chickenshit to me.  And then when your one airplane doesn't even make it off the ground...man.

This is why you debate bills.  So they aren't deemed unconstitutional by judges.  A BC judge decides that the human smuggling bill is over-reaching.

For health reason, Shawn Atleo has stepped aside from the Association of First Nations Chiefs.  I'm picturing him sitting in a dark room someplace with a really confused look on his face, wondering what the hell just happened to him.

It turns out that until a few years ago, the RCMP had absolutely no means of tracking internal discipline.  The CBC story I heard pointed out the irony of the organization that is supposed to track national crime trends and statistics having no idea about their own internal crime trends and statistics.

Is anybody surprised that the heads of Nortel were found not guilty of fraud?  I mean, all they did was collect massive bonuses as they drove their company into bankruptcy.  That's just capitalism.  They're trendsetters, really.